520 
to the danger of damage or destruction 
from fire, are now, through the intelligent 
liberality of the commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania, placed in a thoroughly fire-proof 
building. 
The society has, however, never received 
state or city financial aid for maintenance, 
but has depended entirely upon the lib- 
erality of intelligent people, mainly of 
Philadelphia, to contribute the necessary 
funds to purchase land for our buildings, 
to publish the results of the scientific re- 
searches of our members, to fit out expedi- 
tions and of late years to pay meager sal- 
aries to the members of our scientific staff. 
While we have thus built up fine study 
collections, it has been impossible to develop 
the popular exhibits that other sister insti- 
tutions, rich in state and municipal appro- 
priations, have been enabled to instal. 
We have, however, kept our collections 
systematically arranged and have, during 
the last decade, had the satisfaction of see- 
ing all our historical types and the numer- 
ous recent accessions placed in metal cases, 
impervious to light, dust or moth; which 
will insure them the longest possible life. 
Our honorary corresponding membership 
now numbers about two hundred, composed 
of the greatest scientists of the period. 
Biographical sketches of our officers and 
scientific workers who carried us through 
the last one hundred years are printed in 
our publications, and as we have so little 
time before us they can only be casually 
alluded to in this brief résumé of the acad- 
emy’s history. We are, however, proud of 
the escutcheon upon which the history of 
their lives is engraved. 
Members of this academy have taken 
a very prominent part in explorations. 
Thomas Say was a member of the ‘‘Long 
Expedition’’ to the Rocky Mountains in 
1819 and 1820 and was one of the first 
scientific men to become personally ac- 
SCIENCE 
[N.8. Vou. XXXV. No. 901 
quainted with the vast natural history re- 
sources of the great west. 
Nuttall and Townsend, thirty years after 
the Lewis and Clark expedition, crossed the 
continent to the mouth of the Columbia 
River, and then extended their explorations 
to the Hawaiian Islands, returning around 
the Horn. They brought home rarities of 
animal and plant life, many of which were 
unknown to science. These collections 
were placed in the academy’s museum, then 
the chief repository for natural-history 
specimens in America and here they are 
still preserved. 
When the United States government was 
organizing the famous Wilkes expedition 
of 1838, the academy was requested to 
nominate its scientific staff and two of its 
members eventually accompanied the party. 
In the year 1850 one of our members, 
Edward Harris, financed and accompanied 
the great Audubon expedition up the Mis- 
souri River. Through his modesty, we 
were prevented at the time from making 
known the important part that he took in 
this expedition. Other members made pos- 
sible the exploration of Duchaillu in equa- 
torial Africa. 
We provided Dr. Kane with his outfit for 
systematic collecting in 1853 when he made 
his Arctic expedition. To-day we have in 
our collection his famous Esquimau dog, 
““Toodla,’’ as well as numerous other speci- 
mens obtained by him. Specially interest- 
ing is the gigantic stuffed polar bear which 
stands in interesting contrast to the mod- 
ern mounted specimen brought here by the 
Peary ‘‘relief expedition.’’ 
The Hayes expedition to the far north 
a few years later was also aided and en- 
dorsed by the academy. 
Rear Admiral Peary, discouraged by his 
futile attempts to interest other institu- 
tions and governments in his proposed voy- 
age of exploration to the north, came to us 
